Myth, Performance and the Question of 'Invented Traditions'

sites: new series · vol 6 no 1 · 2009 – article – FERRYING THE GODS: Myth, Performance and the question of ‘Invented Traditions’ in the city of Banaras1 Assa Doron Abstract: The mythological traditions of the ‘native’ populations of colonised countries have been a subject of fascination for both colonial officials and contemporary anthropologists. Myth is often conceived as a window into the lives, social practices and identities of subordinate people. In this paper I examine an episode from the Indian epic Ramayana, which juxtaposes colonial interpretations with a contemporary one, refracted through the narratives and living practices of the boatman community in the sacred city of Banaras. Following Sahlins (1999), I caution against the facile notion of the ‘invention of tradition’ as an inevitable project of resistance which is frequently attributed to oppressed populations. Rather, my analysis of myth illustrates the need to consider the cultural logic and practice associated with mythological narratives, storytelling and performance. I show the way boatmen creatively tap into a rich Hindu devotional tradition (bhakti), revealing the inherent tensions and ambiguities that inform their intentions, fears and desires as they are expressed in the course of everyday life in Banaras. Introduction When describing the caste of fishermen (Kewat) and detailing their various customs and myths, the colonial ethnographer R.V Russell observes the following:2 The Kewats say that formerly theH indus would not take water from them; but on one occasion during his exile Rama came to them and asked them to ferry him across the river; before doing so they washed his feet and drank the water, and since that time the Hindus have considered them pure and take water from their hands. This 1 Article · Doron story has no doubt been invented to explain the fact that Brahmans will take water from non-Aryan Kewats, the custom having in real- ity been adopted as a convenience on account of their employment as palanquin-bearers and indoor servants (Russell and Lal 1916, vol 3: 423–4). Curiously, there is no further explanation apart from the inevitable conclusion that this so-called ‘invented’ tradition, drawn from the Indian epic Ramayana, offers an adequate explanation for the recent incorporation of non-Aryan, low caste communities, such as Kewats, into the social order. The Kewats were thus denied their agency, subservient to the cultural logic in which it is the upper caste Hindus who, for practical reasons, accommodated this myth as a mat- ter of convenience. Importantly, the fact that the above was not explained or elaborated on further is suggestive of a broader pattern prevalent in colonial ethnographic accounts, whereby the customs and myths of the colonised were seen as relics of the past; serving to reaffirm existing social and moral conduct, and where the Brahmins continued to occupy a superior status, by virtue of their racial and religious attributes. Such views served to reinforce the notion that the ‘natives’ were bound by timeless beliefs, practices and rituals. Identifying this pattern of colonial registry, Gloria Raheja (2002) persuasively argues that colonial ethnographers conveniently glossed over the potential critique embedded in myths, legends and proverbs, preferring to uphold the inviolability of caste hierarchy. She observes, for example, that some colonial officials ‘refused to consider the possibility of dissent, the possibility that any- one, but perhaps particularly a person of low caste, might deploy a proverbial utterance to subvert or at least comment ironically upon notions of hierar- chical ordering and the separation of castes’ (Raheja 2002: 203).3 Raheja then demonstrates how by de-contextualising and abstracting proverbs from their everyday usage the ‘communicative and social functions in a speech community are often obscured’ (Raheja 2002: 202). While Russell does not provide us with a context to investigate the myth further, its form, characterised by its an- onymity and a transformative narrative, in which the boatman (Kewat) and his caste are purified by the divine prince Rama, does suggest at least the potential for fluidity, transformation and change within the caste system.I ronically, Russell seemed to prefigure what anthropologists, decades later, have come to identify as the ‘invention of tradition’. But while recent anthropological work has tended to interrogate such ‘invented’ myths and rituals for what they can reveal about power relationships and resistance, Russell’s view echoes a more ‘traditional’ functionalist interpretation of myth, with its practical faculties, as serving to maintain native customs and moral order. 2 SITES: New Series · Vol 6 No 1 · 2009 This article examines the Kevat myth from the Ramayana to demonstrate the strategic and communicative uses of such myths in the discourse and everyday lives of the boatmen of Banaras. The paper has two main goals. The first is to highlight the role of myth in the broader struggle of low caste claims for recognition and equality, and to show how these castes dispute the low status assigned to them within the caste system as communities engaged in degraded and polluting occupations. As recent scholarship makes clear, the oppositional discourse, particularly employed by the dalit (ex-untouchable) castes in India, is often grounded in myth and religious practices, which offer a potent vehicle for low castes to creatively express their social and political needs and aspira- tions (Deliege 1993; Narayan 2001; Pai 2002). My aim, however, is to emphasise the usage of myth as it is embedded in everyday practice, rather than as part of an overarching project of caste upliftment asserting itself against the state or Brahminical domination. Hence, the second goal of the paper is to analyse modes of agency which cannot be explained solely on the basis of generic notions of resistance. To be sure, boatmen employ myths and stories to comment on, reinforce, manipulate, challenge and, at times, resist existing systems of power and to define and uphold their identity, dignity and place withinH indu society. At the same time, following Sahlins (1999), I want to caution against a somewhat reductive view of myth as governed and motivated exclusively by considerations of power and instrumental reason, effectively purging ‘cultural forms of their specific properties’(1999: 406). For Sahlins, the recent slew of studies drawing on the ‘invented traditions’ argument has made many scholars lose sight of equally, if not more, important issues behind peoples’ choice of certain forms of cultural expression to articulate their desires and interests over others (see also Ortner 1997). One way of avoiding this cultural reduc- tionism is to reintroduce the ‘sense of meaningful orders’, by recognising that people’s wants, needs and fears ‘depend on historical contexts of values, on existing or potential relationships of the culture, not only for their content but for their possible realizations’ (Sahlins 1999: 407–409). The paper begins with a brief exploration into the role of myth in a hierar- chically ordered society, such as India. The second part of the paper focuses on how boatmen use such myths drawn from ‘authoritative texts’ to enhance their dignity and self-worth, as well as to express criticism of existing power structures.4 These myths are potent because, while they can be read as endors- ing the hegemonic view of power relations, they are ambiguous enough to warrant competing interpretations. This ambiguity, I argue, is largely derived from the dominant devotional theme present in the mythological narrative (cf. Lutgendorf 2000). I argue that the efficacy and subversive potential of the myths as vehicles for resisting and questioning authority is primarily found 3 Article · Doron in the context in which they are employed, that is, in the physical and cultural settings which inform both collective and individual acts of narration, appro- priation, commentary and performance. The third part of this paper examines the way boatmen exercise agency and discover meaning in their lives by acting out their mythical role as devout and righteous boatmen, and through their occupation and ritual responsibilities. The knowledge produced through such story telling is thus validated in practice, and insofar as it constitutes part of the living experience of boatmen. Such an exercise of agency, I argue in the conclusion, must throw into question some of the more conventional views on agency as default mode of resistance. The Power of Myth The study of myths has occupied generations of anthropologists, with Ma- linowski’s [2002 (1926)] notion of the ‘mythical charter’ remaining one of the most enduring interpretations. For Malinowski, myth was fundamentally a coping instrument, deployed in various, often strategic, ways to deal with the pragmatics of everyday existence. According to this view myth is best conceived as an ‘active force’, rather than simply a relic of the past, and as such, ‘told in satisfaction of deep religious wants, moral cravings, social submissions, assertions, even practical requirements…it is not an intellectual explanation or an artistic imagery, but a pragmatic charter of primitive faith and moral wis- dom’ (Malinowski 2002: 177). Such functionalist interpretations render myth central to our understanding of meaning and power in society. Malinowski’s views on myths continue to resonate strongly in many recent studies that examine the

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